30 March,2011 07:09 AM IST | | Amit Singh
Sachin and Harbhajan will be playing with willows chiselled by a Jalandhar-based bat manufacturer
When you see Sachin and Bhajji walk onto the pitch today, you'll see something different about them. Their willows are new, unused, and well, exclusively here for your preview.
Sachin inspects his bat as manufacturer Pankaj Kumar (extreme right) looks on.
Around 1.30 pm on Monday, Pankaj Kumar, a Jalandhar-based bat manufacturer walked straight into Sachin's suite at the Taj Hotel here, and presented to him what he calls the "super bat". The other he had brought along was meant as a gift for Harbhajan.
"I prepared the bat for the master blaster on special request. When India was playing West Indies in Chennai on March 19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium (the 42nd match the last in the group stage of the World Cup), Sehwag had requested me to make a fresh bat for him and Sachin.
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I had then couriered the willows to him. Later, Sachin SMSed me, asking for a heavier bat. Even Bhajji expressed a desire to have a new one.
So their wish had to be my command it is a big match at hand and I do hope these tools help them win the war," said Kumar, ecstatic about getting a chance to serve the big boys before the make-or-break encounter.
The businessman says that he got to the job immediately after, and decided to deliver the bats in person if the team made it to Mohali.
"Sachin never discloses details about the bat he'd be wielding for a particular match. We come to know when he's on the field.
He broke Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries with a bat produced by us, and also scored 10,000 runs from that one. After both the matches, he messaged me saying that he loved the Super Bat," he said.
Speculation was rife that Sachin had planned to switch his lucky battered willow with a fresh one for D-Day, and even though the cricketers have their lips pursed on the matter, the pictures say it all.
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"Sachin's 100th century will be hit from this bat. He even asked me to come in the evening and take back the old bat for repair," said Kumar.
When asked how he first got associated with the Men in Blue, he said, "I was introduced to Sachin by Sehwag 7-8 years back during a match in Delhi.
From then on, he has been calling me at regular intervals for bats. Bhajji, I met at Mohali sometime back."
Apart from making customised bats for the national team, Kumar's bats, which he sells to the sports brand Puma, are used by top international cricketers such as Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum and Paul Collingwood.
Super bat stats
Sachin's bat generally weighs 1270 gm. Other batsmen use bats weighing around 1200 gm.
Preparing Sachin's bat generally takes around 10-15 days. It takes 5000-6000 cleft wood units, imported from the UK, to decide upon which one will make for the best raw material
A team of around 40-45 workers get to the job once the selection stage is over.
Firstly, they mallet (hammer the bat with a wooden hammer) and then knock it off an old ball.
While Sachin's bat was auctioned at a whopping Rs 42 lakh last year, the manufacturer of his semi-final bat, Kumar says he gives the players these bats free of cost.
